Reverend Billy Graham

The Reverend Billy Graham is lying in state and honor at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC today.

This is a rare event, and Graham is only the fourth private person outside of government to be so honored, along with Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks in 2005, and two police officers who defended the Capitol from a gunman in 1998.

The list of government figures who have been so honored include 11 Presidents; 10 Senators; Soldiers of the various wars of America in the 20th century; and a few other military and government figures.

Additionally, Salmon P. Chase 1873 in the Senate chamber; Samuel Hooper 1875 in the House chamber; also Thurgood Marshall in 1993, Warren Burger in 1995, and Antonin Scalia in 2016 at the US Supreme Court; as well as Commerce Secretary Ron Brown at the Commerce Department in 1996.

The Reverend Franklin Graham, the son and inheritor of the mantle of the Reverend Billy Graham, now 93 years old, has never been the equal of his father, and today on Morning Joe on MSNBC, he proved just how hypocritical a person he is!

Graham claimed he did now know if Barack Obama is a Christian, but would take him at his word, although he was troubled that Obama’s father, grandfather and great grandfather from Kenya were Muslims, and could understand that many would have doubts about his Christianity. He said he thought Obama might secretly be a Muslim, because Obama was working to give the Islamic faith a “free pass” by promoting the idea of contacts with the Islamic world, and was failing to protect Christians in Islamic nations from attack. Actually, Obama HAS issued a statement calling upon Islamic countries to protect the rights of minority religious groups, including Christians, but Graham conveniently lied about that fact. Graham has also earlier questioned whether Obama was born in the United States, making him a “birther”, at least in the past.

Franklin Graham measures whether one is a “good Christian” based on what they say, EXCEPT for Barack Obama!

Franklin Graham decides that one is religious, based on church attendance, when that proves absolutely nothing about a person.

What proves whether anyone is “religious” is his or her treatment of other human beings on a daily basis, on how he or she judges others, on whether one keeps an open mind, and does not condemn people who have other religious beliefs.

Graham also expressed doubts about Mitt Romney being a Christian, as he pointed out that many Christians thought that the Mormon Church was not a Christian church.

But he had no doubts that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were Christians, taking them at their word, although he pointed out that both were Catholics, and that Protestants had differences with Catholic beliefs.

Basically, for a evangelical Christian like Franklin Graham, there is a quandary as he is faced with a person he thinks may be Muslim, a Mormon, and two Catholics. This, plus the fact that the US Supreme Court has six Catholics and three Jews is troubling to those who have problems with both Catholics and Jews. He accepts Santorum and Gingrich as “better” than a ‘ secret Muslim” and a Mormon, but is obviously troubled that his way of looking at religion is not found in any of the possible Presidential candidates!

What it comes down to is that Franklin Graham is a hypocrite big time, and an embarrassment to his father, the Reverend Billy Graham. He is not the worthy successor of his father by any standard one can create!